India’s New Framework for Online Content Regulation: An overview of the recent amendments to the IT (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules

In today’s day and age where social media has made the world a global village, unlawful content and AI deepfakes have far-reaching consequences. AI generated reels, which look very real, have now become a common phenomenon on social media platforms. These reels could be a politician’s fabricated speech affecting the opinions of the voters, a celebrity’s altered video or audio that is posted on the social media platform without their consent, or it someone’s morphed photo/video created with the intention to blackmail that person.

To address this issue, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (“MeitY”) has notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2025 (“Amendment Rules”) on October 22, 2025, and another draft amendment to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“Draft Amendment”). These rules together form a structured regime to identify, label and moderate AI generated content on social media.

The Background of 2025 reset of IT (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules

In India, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“Principal Rules”) was one of the initial steps to mandate-

• due diligence for intermediaries[1] including social media platformsand
• a code of ethics for digital news and publishers of online curated content.

Under these Rules, the social media intermediaries were to take down unlawful content (popularly known as “takedown notifications”) within the specified timeline and provide grievance redressal system for the user.

Although the Principal Rules provided an overall framework to govern intermediaries but there were major gaps that became evident with the rapid growth of social media and advancements in AI. Such gaps include the following:

1. The authorities issuing directions to take down content were not mandated to provide detailed and reasoned orders leading to confusion and unclear guidance to the intermediaries. This problem was also addressed in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015), where the Supreme Court read down Section 79(3)(b)  of the Information Technology Act, 2000 to hold that the court order or the duly authorized government notification issued to intermediaries for takedown of content, must strictly conform to the subject matters in Article 19(2). [2]

2. The Principal Rules did not address the growing wave of deepfakes and synthetically generated content that can unlawfully impersonate individuals and spread misinformation.

In this backdrop, MeitY notified the 2025 Amendment to Rule 3(1)(d) of the Principal Rules and simultaneously published a draft amendment focusing on “synthetically generated information” for public consultation. 

The 2025 Amendment: What exactly has changed in Rule 3(1)(d)?

Rule 3(1)(d) of the Principal Rules mandates the social media intermediaries to takedown unlawful information within 36 hours of actual knowledge through a court order or a notification from the appropriate Government or its agency. The Supreme Court in the case of Shreya Singhal vs Union of India also mandated that. The amendment now introduces clear procedures to be followed to takedown such unlawful content to reduce the chances of arbitrary orders and provide clear guidance to the intermediaries.

The key features of the amendment are as follows:

1. Previously, the Principal Rules did not prescribe any rank or qualification for officers issuing takedown notifications. The Amendment Rules specifies that only an authorised officer of Appropriate Government or its agency, who is at least of Joint Secretary rank can issue takedown orders and if such intimation is to be issued by the police administration, then only a specially authorised officer, not below the rank of Deputy Inspector General of Police, can issue such intimation.
2. The intermediaries are required to remove or disable access to information, which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, contempt of court, defamation, or incitement to an offence within thirty-six hours of the receipt of actual knowledge of the information. Earlier, intermediaries were deemed to have actual knowledge of such unlawful content, upon receiving an order from a court or a notification from the Appropriate Government or its agency. Under the Amendment, actual knowledge will arise only upon –
   • an order of a court, or
   • a reasoned written intimation from an authorised officer.
3. Earlier, no specific details were mandated to be included in the takedown intimation. The Amendment Rules mandates that all intimations issued by the authorised officers should be reasoned and should contain the following information:
   • the precise statutory provision invoked;
   • the nature of the alleged unlawful act (for example, threat to sovereignty, public order, decency, or incitement to an offence); and
   • the exact electronic location of the content, such as URL, identifier, or communication link to be removed.
4. Therefore, intermediaries will be considered to have actual knowledge through an authorized officer only when they have received reasoned intimation in writing by such officer. This will reduce ambiguity leading to increased transparency and clear accountability for the intermediaries.
5. The takedown intimations issued by the authorized officer would undergo a monthly review by an officer of at least Secretary rank to the appropriate Government. The review would ensure proportionality and legality of such intimations. 

The Draft Amendment: A new chapter on deepfakes and synthetic media

MeitY has proposed draft amendments to the Principal Rules which targets “synthetically generated information” like AI‑generated or AI‑modified content, including deepfakes inviting public comments. The last date for submitting feedback or comments was 13^th of  November 2025. Presently, MeitY has not notified these draft amendments, and they have therefore not yet come into effect.

The aim of these amendments is to strengthen due diligence obligations of intermediaries especially social media intermediary and significant social media intermediary to check the growing misuse of technologies that can create real-like synthetic media so as to make the internet a safe space for the users.

The Draft Amendment proposes the following major changes:

• Intermediaries offering tools for creation or modification of synthetic content wil need to label or embed a permanent metadata or identifier within such content.
• Requires visibility or audibility coverage of at least 10% of visual surface area or initial 10% of audio duration to indicate that the content is synthetically generated.
• Prohibits intermediaries from modifying, suppressing, or removing such labels or identifiers.

Although the Amendment Rules and the Draft Amendments are separate set of rules, they go hand in hand to form the overall framework to govern online content. The Amendment Rules provides a procedural framework as to who can issue the takedown directions, how it is to be issued and how these directions are monitored. On the other hand, the Draft Amendment aim to provide a substantive framework by proposing to mandate labelling and technical verification for online content posted on social media platforms. These frameworks together aim to establish the basis for accountability and transparency in the Indian digital space.

Conclusion: Toward a safer and more accountable global village

MeitY’s recent amendments carefully treads the thin line between content regulation and free speech. The new framework attempts to strike a balance between the both, by mandating that the takedown directions can only be issued by the authorised senior officers with reasoned and content-specific orders. This will lead to reduced arbitrary instructions which could otherwise hamper legitimate and genuine content.

The Amendment Rules ensure that the senior-level, reasoned and monitored orders are issued to the intermediaries, while the Draft Amendment addresses the growing concern of deepfakes through labelling and increased responsibilities for larger platforms.

The intermediaries will now be aware of the reasons why content is removed and the users will know if what they are scrolling through is, in fact, real or not. These laws, if implemented with precision, promises to make India’s digital platforms an open, safe and trusted place for millions of users to post and view content, without hampering innovation in both artificial intelligence and social media.

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[1] Section 2(1)(w) in the Information Technology Act, 2000: “intermediary”, with respect to any particular electronic records, means any person who on behalf of another person receives, stores or transmits that record or provides any service with respect to that record and includes telecom service providers, network service providers, internet service providers, web-hosting service providers, search engines, online payment sites, online-auction sites, online-market places and cyber cafes;

[2] Article 19(2) of the Constitution of India: Nothing in sub-clause (a) of clause (1) shall affect the operation of any existing law, or prevent the State from making any law, in so far as such law imposes reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause in the interests of 6[the sovereignty and integrity of India,] the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.

Authored by: Shristi Agarwal

Co-Authored by: Amiya Mukherjee

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